Ava (A Hart Twins Novel Rx Book 1)

by Charyse Allan

  I heard what happened.

  If I said anymore, I would rant and rage, letting her know exactly what I wanted to do to the person who did that, but she didn’t deserve that either. The two-minute bell rang when I settled on going to class. Having missed too much of my first hour already, out of pure laziness, I couldn’t afford to skip out again.

  The final bell rang right when I entered the room. Ms. Kreg looked surprised I bothered to show up. There was no way I could listen to her talk about fractions, exponents, whatever. My seat in the back of the room made it easy to stare at my phone, waiting for a response from Ava that never came. Her new habit of not answering my texts drove me nuts, especially when it came to something like this. When first hour let out, I sent another.

  You okay?

  She still hadn’t answered by the end of second period. Word spread about her car. I didn’t know how, but people whispered about it through the halls while I walked to third period. It took all my control not to yell at every person who said something about it.

  I fidgeted while staring at my phone through third and fourth period, waiting for lunch to come around, so I could try to get her to call me. I ignored the whispers about what words were permanently on her car, how she probably deserved it. The second the bell rang for lunch, I texted her again as I headed to a food cart.

  Could you call me?

  Rabia and Mason were waiting in line at the cart we usually went to. When I walked up, Rabia gave me the cold shoulder again, and Mase gave me a sympathetic grin. I didn’t have the patience to figure out what was up with Rabia. She was usually the sweetest person, but apparently I had done something to piss her off.

  I stayed silent while we stood there in line, waiting, not only to order my food, but for Ava to answer her freaking phone. It was tempting to ask Mason and Rabia what they knew about the whole situation, but I was too upset to have a coherent conversation. Five whole minutes was all I lasted, checking the screen constantly, before I texted her one more time.

  It sucks you’re not

  answering…

  Why wasn’t she answering? Was something wrong? Had something else happened and she decided not to talk to anyone?

  In the back of my mind there was some logic telling me she was probably busy doing something else, but it had been all day without her saying a word to me. In all honesty, I was angry she hadn’t told me herself about what happened. If I hadn’t caught Mia that morning, I would have found out from the whispers through the halls. Really, I needed to stop being a pussy.

  Since she still hadn't responded, I settled on calling her, but someone's words drew my attention. “You heard about it?” Trent, who stood a few people in front of us, spoke loud enough for his voice to travel to us. The kid next to him—I think his name was Brandon—nodded with a lopsided smile. “I think it’s hilarious!” Trent guffawed, booming with laughter.

  “It kind of sucks though, don’t you think?” Brandon pointed out, keeping his grin in place, as if it would lessen the blow of him contradicting Trent.

  “No way does it suck! She totally deserved it.” Trent gave the kid a hard look, shaking his head. They had to be talking about Ava. Trent had hated her since she joined the council, and his dislike had probably grown even more now that she was changing the prom plans. My blood boiled when he threw his head back and laughed. It would only take a little push. If he kept going, I would take all my anger out on him. “That stunt she pulled with prom was outrageous! I’m sure it’s just a fluke. Everyone will see it was a huge mistake, and they’ll want to go back to the Mardi Gras plans.”

  “I thought the new plans were actually pretty great,” Brandon admitted. I instantly became a big fan of his. Anyone who was on my girl’s side was a friend.

  Trent looked daggers at him as the line moved forward. “It’s a ridiculous plan. Anyway, I heard she pissed off a bunch of people in the last couple weeks. So, like I said, she deserved it.”

  “He’s such a douche,” Mason breathed next to me. It was barely audible, but both Rabia and I heard it.

  Rabia looked up at him with sad eyes, shoving me over the edge. They obviously wanted to stick up for their friend but were too afraid. I wasn’t. He’d gone too far, pushed the wrong buttons. I couldn’t let this kid walk away thinking he could say whatever shit he wanted about one of the sweetest, most caring girls I knew. Besides, what if he was the one to do it? He deserved to pay.

  They both gasped when I shoved forward, pushing people out of my way to get to Trent. Some protested, some cursed at me, but I only had eyes for Trent. In only a few seconds, I was in front of him, with his collar in my fists. He sputtered for a moment, before realizing everyone was watching.

  “What’s your problem?” he demanded, but fear clouded his gaze.

  I gripped his shirt tighter, pulling him closer. “You are my problem,” I growled. I kind of shook him. Maybe a little hard. His teeth clacked together. Then I pulled him in close again. “You better watch what you say.”

  The panic in his eyes and demeanor told me everything. He was terrified I would rearrange his perfect face. And, man, did I want to. “Get your hands off me,” he demanded, shoving away from me. I let go easily, letting him think he had gotten away from me. He took off in the opposite direction, Brandon on his heals, looking at me like I belonged in a ward. Which maybe I did, but whatever.

  “You better walk away, dickweed,” I snarled after him. “If I hear you talking about her again, I’ll do exactly what you’re terrified of me doing.”

  I was sure he was done. He should have been. He continued walking away in a pretty quick fashion. Blood pumped through my veins, heart pounding, begging me to take action, do something. With some deep breaths, I tried to calm it down, tried gaining control, but he just had to turn around. With my teeth clenched, I prepared myself for whatever he might say, hoping my rational side—the one telling me not to pound his face into the cement—would win out.

  “I meant what I said, asswipe,” he sneered, and Brandon’s eyes bugged out of his head, as if he knew what was coming to Trent. I was pretty sure everyone watching us gasped, or something, but the buzzing in my ears was pretty loud. “And I wish I had been the one to do it.”

  The switch flipped.

  There wasn’t anything I could do to flip it back.

  Charging him or running at him was unnecessary. At a slow pace, I approached him, hands held loosely at my sides. He smirked like a dipshit, thinking he was totally awesome. Until my fist snapped out, connecting with his cheekbone. It made a loud cracking sound, seeming to echo through the silent crowd. The sear of pain in my knuckles was easily ignored, if not welcomed.

  There was shouting and cheering as the crowd closed in around us. He staggered backward, almost falling to the ground. Before he could gain his feet, my left fist made contact with his nose, crushing it, giving me distant satisfaction. Blood spurted from it, making a huge mess. He held his nose, whimpering like a little girl while everyone around us waited to see what would happen next.

  He snarled, tried swinging at me, throwing his entire body into it. It was easy to dodge, causing him to trip past me, falling to the ground. Before he could get back up, I was on him. The rage flowed through me while I pounded my fists into his face. The sweet sound of bone meeting bone, flesh meeting flesh, consumed me.

  It didn’t last long. The whole occurrence probably only lasted a few minutes, but the damage was done. Two sets of hands pulled at my shoulders, dragging me off him. He lay on the ground, whimpering like a wounded pig. “That’s enough, kid,” one of the security guards, who I was pretty sure was an actual cop, growled while they dragged me away from him.

  The crowd had scattered, probably at the sight of the security guards. Brandon was trying to help Trent up from the ground. The sight of his battered face didn’t bring a twinge of remorse.

  Chapter Fourteen

  In the office, I stared at my split knuckles. The vice principal was still talking to Trent wh
o saw the nurse first thing when we got there. I didn’t know if I would even get the chance to talk to anyone but didn’t really care. The high of the fight was wearing off, but I didn’t regret it, as I usually did by this point. The only regret I had was how Ava would react when she found out what I had done. It would kill me if she looked at me like I was a monster, if she knew of this awful part of me.

  The VP’s office door finally opened a while later. Trent sauntered out, giving me a satisfied smirk. He wasn’t in too bad of shape: his nose broken, black bruises forming under his eyes, and his eyebrow and lip were split open. Unfortunately, he would survive. The vice principal stood at his door, his hard gaze trained on me. He gestured for me to come in the office, and I complied, shutting the door behind me.

  Sitting behind his huge, oak desk, he gestured for me to sit in the chair across from him. He was a big, burly man who looked as if he should be playing professional football. I always thought he was a pretty cool guy and hoped my theory played true. We stared each other down for a long minute, before he sighed heavily.

  “So Trent tells me you attacked him out of nowhere,” he started but kept his face blank, so I wasn’t sure if he actually believed it or not. I didn’t even dignify his statement with a pfft. Arms clasped behind his head, he sat back in his chair. “I’ve seen some pretty nasty fights in my day. Seen some punks go at it just for the hell of it, just to get the adrenaline rush of running on their caveman instincts.” He paused, piercing me with his dark gaze.

  “A lot of you kids like to think us authority figures don’t have a damn clue about what’s going on in our school. Like Trent there—he thinks he can get away with going on and on about you beating the crap out of him for no apparent reason.” He shifted in his chair again, leaning forward on his desk. “I know your record from Seattle wasn’t too great. You got yourself into some pointless brawls, got into some trouble with marijuana and other substances.”

  The turn of conversation had me squirming in my seat. I used to be quite the shithead, and I knew it, but that didn’t mean I liked dredging it all up. “But I also know we haven’t had any problems with you since you started here,” he went on. “Since I know all that, you should conclude I’m also aware of what happened this morning. That one of our best students—a girl you’re known to be particularly close with—had her car vandalized this morning and word of it spread like wildfire through this campus. We’ve already had a few kids come up here telling the staff what they heard Trent say before you went at him. Even his friend, Brandon, let us know what was said.”

  My breath hitched while he shifted some papers around on his desk. There still wasn’t an ounce of remorse in me for giving Trent what I thought he deserved, but I didn’t want my mom to have to go through the grief of me getting in trouble again. His gaze rested back on me, amusement in the depths of it.

  “That being said, you’re still going to be suspended for a week because I can’t let you completely off the hook. You did beat the crap out of our class president.” His smirk had me holding in a laugh, and a sigh. A week was nothing. “You should also be aware I talked Trent out of pressing charges. As you are now eighteen, you would have been tried as an adult, and I feel with your sketchy past, the justice system wouldn’t have been as understanding as I’m being.”

  This time I did sigh. I hadn’t even thought about the police getting involved and me probably ending up with assault charges. My mom would have murdered me. “Thank you,” was all I could think to say, but it wasn’t enough. I hoped he understood how grateful I was.

  “You don’t need to thank me.” He shook his head. “I want you to show your gratitude by staying out of trouble from now until the end of the year. I did call your mom, so you’ll probably get a lot more grief from her than you are from me.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right about that. But I still appreciate you backing me up. And just for the record, I never hit someone who didn’t deserve it.”

  “I figured as much,” he admitted before standing. I followed suit. “You better get going. I have some other unruly students to deal with, and your mom is waiting at home for you.”

  I chuckled as we shook hands, cringing at the slight sting from my busted knuckles. When I left his office, Rabia and Mason stood in the main office, both fidgeting and whispering to each other. Once they spotted me, Rabia gave me a huge hug while crying all over my shoulder. I patted her awkwardly and sent a big “thank you” up to God for helping everything—down to winning back Ava’s best friend’s affections—work out smoothly.

  I gave them a short explanation of my punishment and the fact that I had to go home. Rabia said they would be heading over to Ava’s after school to check on her. It was a relief her friends would be there for her, but I wished it could be me. I still hadn’t even gotten a response to any of my texts. Knowing how my mom would react, I probably wouldn’t see her for the next week or so.

  The moment I got home, I sat in silence while she got her yelling out. I earned it from her because she expected better from me. I deserved it. I had yet to feel bad about Trent, but I was disappointed in myself for letting him get to me.

  When she was all yelled out, we talked but not about the fight. About Darrel. She was dead serious about fixing things between them and was certain he felt the same way. The idea of them being back together made my skin crawl, but I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, yet again.

  When she brought up the offer he gave me, I told her I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my future yet, but whatever I decided on, I wanted to do it myself, without his help. She seemed to respect my wishes, and we came to an understanding. We would let each other be with the choices we thought we needed to make, which I felt good about.

  After our conversation, she settled on my punishment of a week of being grounded with no phone and no friends. I would only be able to leave the house to go to work and come right home, which I was all right with. I would suffer in silence, even though it would drive me crazy to go without talking to Ava for a whole week. Since she already didn’t like Ava, I didn’t find it necessary to tell her what the fight was about.

  Before I was ready to hand over my brand new phone, I sent Ava one more text, hoping she wouldn’t hate me, then turned it off and gave it to my mom. She had to get ready for work, but I had the night off, so I closed myself in my room to play video games. A long week of boredom was in my near future.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ava

  Someone shook me from a dead sleep. My eyes were blurry and my room dark, so it took me a minute to focus on the face hovering over me. My mom patted my cheek with her concerned gaze locked on me. “Hey, sweetie,” she whispered while I sat up, looking around my room with wide eyes. My TV was still on, and I was in the middle of my bed with blankets piled on top of me. The empty pint of ice cream was discarded on the side of my bed. “You okay?” she asked when I didn’t say anything.

  “Yeah,” I croaked, then cleared my throat. “What time is it?”

  “It’s a little after three.” Head tilted, she shifted on the edge of my bed. “I tried to come earlier, but I got caught up with some clients. I called, but your phone is off.”

  “Sorry.” After pulling the blankets off, I scrounged for my phone to turn it back on. It vibrated multiple times, making me cringe. The thought of reading all my texts gave me an instant headache, so I locked it again before tossing it aside. “I turned it off after I talked to Kai. I didn’t want to deal with any more. I didn’t think I would sleep that long.”

  “You needed the rest.” She patted my leg, then got up from the bed. While she picked up the empty carton of ice cream and tossed my dirty laundry in the basket, I got up too. “Dad was worried he couldn’t get ahold of you, but I told him I was coming to check on you. He got everything started with the insurance, and he’s going to take your car to a body shop tomorrow to get an estimate.”

  My poor dad was going to have to drive my
ruined car around town, what an awful thing. “Okay.” I nodded.

  “So.” Mom cleared her throat, moving to my door. “You have some visitors waiting downstairs, but if you—”

  “What?” I interrupted, blinking in shock. I appraised my sweats again, running my fingers through my messy hair. Falling asleep while it was still wet did not bode well for me.

  “It’s only Rabia and Mason. They won’t care how you look,” she told me with a cautious smile. “I had to pick Mia up, and they tagged along because they were worried about you. If you aren’t up for visitors, I can take them home on my way back to the gallery.”

  I stared at her dumbly for a second then ran my hands over my face. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be down right behind you.”

  “Oh good.” She sighed, before rushing over to give me a hug. “Now, if you want to go do something tonight, I think you should. Get your mind off of this. Dad said you can even use his car if you want, okay?”

  “I’ll probably stay in, but I’ll let you know if I change my mind.” My smile ended up as more of a grimace. “I’ll be down in a minute. I just want to change.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, pecking me on the cheek before leaving me alone.

  I closed the door, groaning inwardly. Curling back up in bed and pretending the day never happened seemed so much more appealing, but I missed my friends and they were so sweet to come check on me. I pulled on some worn jeans and a clean T-shirt then ran my fingers through my hair again. I couldn’t do much to help it, but like my mom said, it was only Rabia and Mase.

  Music shook the walls of Mia’s room when I passed by. She must have holed herself in there to stay away from my friends. There was a time when she would have joined us, laughing, hanging out. Damn, I missed her. If only she would tell me what was going on, then everything would be all right because I could help her. I was determined try harder the next time we talked.